2008-09
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/31/2008
War-date Union soldier's letter written by Sgt. Jordan C. Harriss & Pvt. Orson Thornton, KIA on June 10, 1864 at Guntown, Mississippi, Co. A, 81st Illinois Vols., 4p. octavo, Vicksburg, Mississippi, February 5, 1864, with cover, and reads in part: "…We got some news of the troops who have just gone out a few days having been engaged in a fight. I have not heard the particulars….almost daily I am becoming more hopeful for the speedy termination of the cause of our separation, the War. I was encouraged a fresh this morning to see in the papers with the signature of 'Old Abe' to it the order for a draft of so many thousand more men & that the Rebel armies were becoming less & less by thousands of desertions and there is another thing that fills me with delight & that is to see how powerfully the mass of human minds is being wrought upon & how long established errors & prejudices are vanishing away as mist when exposed to the scorching rays of the sun…I entertain suspicions in my mind that events have made some changes of opinion in your mind, I half believe sometimes when I read your letters that you are almost an abolitionist. Is it so?..." VG. Harriss was captured with a majority of his regiment at Guntown, Miss. on June 10, 1864 and sent to Andersonville prison. After his exchange, he was mustered out with his regiment at the end of the war.
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